JERUSALEM -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The Israeli Military said Thursday that the `` vast majority '' of Palestinians killed in the recent Gaza conflict were `` terror operatives '' and the number of people killed was less than Palestinian sources reported .

Israel says the majority of Palestinians killed during `` Operation Cast Lead '' were `` terror operatives . ''

In an e-mailed statement the Israel Defense Forces spokesman 's office claimed their figures contained the names of 1,166 Palestinians killed in the conflict , called `` Operation Cast Lead . ''

The Israeli military said 709 of them were `` identified as Hamas terror operatives , among them several from various other terror organizations . ''

The remaining , the statement claims , were comprised of 162 names who `` have not yet been attributed to any organization . ''

`` Furthermore , it has come to our understanding that 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation , 89 of them under the age of 16 , and 49 of them were women . ''

The Israeli military said it was releasing the findings to counter `` false information originating from various Palestinian sources , and in order to remove any doubt regarding the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead . ''

The numbers presented by the Israeli military differ sharply from those reported by Palestinian sources . At the conclusion of the fighting , the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza had put the death toll at over 1,300 , with the majority made up of non-combatants .

More recently the Palestinian Center for Human Rights -LRB- PCHR -RRB- published a study that put the total death toll at 1,417 , including 926 civilians of which 313 were children under the age of 18 and 116 women . It reports that the remainder was made of 255 `` non-combatant '' police officers and 236 who were took `` an active part in hostilities . ''

Jaber Wishah , a deputy director for PCHR told CNN his organization `` stands firmly on our published figures '' and that Israel 's choice to classify police officers as combatants is `` illegal . ''

`` Such classification constitutes a willful violation of the principle of ` distinction ' which is a key component of customary international law . This raises serious doubts about the accuracy of the figures published by the Israelis , '' he said .

Wishah said the civilian death toll included `` large numbers of deaths inside people 's homes and other civilian facilities '' and that it indicated `` the extent to which civilians were intentionally targeted . ''

Wishah said that until the Israeli government produced the names and details on which its figures were based that he could not comment further .

The Israeli military has maintained that it went to great lengths to minimize civilian deaths and put the responsibility of civilian deaths on Hamas .

`` The Hamas terror organization placed the primary fighting scene at the heart of civilian neighborhoods as it booby-trapped homes , fired from schools and used civilians as human shields , '' the IDF said .

Asked about the discrepancy in numbers , an Israeli military official suggested that natural occurring deaths in Gaza had been included in the Palestinian death toll numbers and that the total ratio of non-combatant to combatants killed was low .

A spokesman for the Israeli military said it could not immediately make the list of killed Palestinians available and could not offer more detail on methodology .

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Israel : `` Vast majority '' of Palestinians killed in Gaza were `` terror operatives ''

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Military says number of people killed less than Palestinian sources reported

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Israel says 1,166 died , with 709 `` identified as Hamas terror operatives ''